Christmas '09 Gifts ideas: Annick Goutal limited editions

The bestseller of Annick Goutal, the bracingly lemony Eau d'Hadrien with its refined cypress and citron accents is issued in a limited edition Noel 2009 in a precious flacon boule (ball bottle) with a butterfly top and printed gold stars.
The bottle is numbered, issued in only 639 pieces around the world and signed by Camille Goutal.
Additionally there is a Coffret Noel with 5 small candles of 35g each retailing for 40 euros, as well as Christmas coffrets offerings of the popular Eaux de Toilette in 50ml bottles along with the crème corps parfumée tube (100ml).
Available in Un Matin d'Orage, Eau d'Hadrien and Petite Cherie.
Retail price: 65 Euros for each set.

Christmas '09 Gifts ideas: New Diptyque candles & solid perfumes

Three new candles by Diptyque come in a brilliantly coloured presentation Wycinanki, making them each a perfect Christmas stocking stuffer! The scents are:
Marrons Grillés (Roasted chestnuts): The scent mixes the gasoline-like Cade and birch to the sweetness of tonka bean and vanilla.
Benzoin: The benzoin essence is caressed by a charismatic patchouli and woody cypriol from India, sublimated by the darker and softwood cist, possessing the evocative power of a spellbinding journey.
Sapin de Noel (Christmas Fir): Its evergreen branches, emerging green accents and air from wormwood and galbanum, are colored by the intensity of sour eucalyptus.
190g/6.5oz, 50Euros each


There is also the limited edition for Xmas 2009 Coffret d'Hiver/Winter Coffret: 3 small-size candles in a thematic black and gold sleeve. It contains Feu de Bois (logwood fire) 70g, Oranger (Orange tree)70g, and Pin Sylvestre 70g. Retails for 65 Euros.

But apart from gifts to others, they are spoiling us with suggestions on gifts for ourselves as well! Solid perfumes in a metal box with the shiny black oval Diptyque engraved intaglio are now available in L'Ombre dans l'Eau and Philosykos, two of the brand's bestsellers. Makes for purse-friendly touch-ups through the day! (and a nifty idea for travelling too)
4.5g for 30 Euros

Ineke Field Notes from Paris: fragrance review

Field Notes from Paris is the latest installment in the alphabetized line by San Francisco-based independent perfumer Ineke Rühland, a woody oriental inspired by her early days studying perfumery in Paris and at the Versailles, her strolls at le Marais and the fervour of trying to accumulate knowledge of her craft. The first four fragrances, alphabetized from A to D, came out in 2006. Two years later came Evening edged in Gold with its unusual candied and hypnotic Angel’s Trumpet floral note. And now the first scent to depart from the sharper flowers' schema into a more shadowy alley: Field Notes from Paris. The advertising slogan of "Life measured out in coffee spoons" recalls of course T.S Eliot and where else but in Paris, coffee capital of the world probably, would this hold any more true (romantically and not cynically so, I might add)?

Ineke aimed to capture "the romantic, nostalgic feeling of sitting at a café and writing in a journal while lingering for hours over a cafe crème". I can just picture her starting her day sipping one at Au Petit Fer à Cheval on Rue Vielle du Temple on her route to book shopping at the nearby La Belle Hortense. And what better (and more standard accompaniment) to coffee than a puff of a cigarette, preferably the unfiltered ones which Parisians love to drag on still? It's no accident that F.Malle commissioned perfumer Carlos Benaïm with a home fragrance called "Coffee Society"!
Conversely to the retro cool ashtray note that several old-fashioned chypres convey with much flair (just think of Cellier's Bandit in Eau de Parfum), the tobacco featured in Field Notes from Paris is cuddlier and sweeter, unlit, devoid of its tough exteriors in an enigmaric warm and comforting embrace of a little smooth, aged patchouli and hay (but no coffee notes to speak of), but ~wait! is there a delicious whiff of leather, some honey and some lavender somewhere in there? The impression I am given is of a mellow masculine fougère, feathered out to its woodier extremities, especially in the opening which features the most interesting mentholated little wink.
Judging by the retro fougère resurgence which we are experiencing in the niche sector lately (Geranium pour Monsieur, Fourreau Noir), I think Ineke is on to something; let's not forget how tobacco in perfumes is becoming the only acceptable way of getting your fix now, the launch of Havana Vanille and thevery densely tobacco-ish Bell'Antonio by Hilde Soliani other examples of the genre. Ineke's fingers are firmly on the pulse!
The finishing off in sweeter Virginian cedar (just a touch) and the rounding of lightly vanillic, resinous tones makes Field Notes from Paris wearable by both sexes, if so inclined, although women who usually go for smoother, more powdery vanillas in the woody oriental scheme (such as Trouble or Brit) and surypy thick ambers might have their expectations not met at all. The rest can breathe with relief; money well spent.

Notes for Ineke Field Notes from Paris:
Top: orange blossom, lemon and coriander
Heart: tobacco blossom, patchouli and cedar
Base: tonka bean, benzoin and vanilla

Field Notes from Paris is available in 75ml/2.5oz of Eau de Toilette for 88$ directly from the official Ineke site.
In the interests of disclosure I was sent a sample in a cute "matchbox" by the perfumer as part of a loyalty scheme.
Pics via anxietyneurosis.wordpress and pinksith.com

Amouage Contest: Win Epic bottles and samples!

Courtesy of Extrait.it with which we have a nice rapport, I was honoured to receive news of the contest they have organised after their Christopher Chong interview which I had linked to in the recent past. What is it? Write about the mystery man in the Jubilation videos and enter the contest to win 50 samples of the latest Epic by Amouage while the grand winners (one male, one female) chosen by Christopher Chong himself will receive a bottle of Epic for Men and another of Epic for Women!

"Extrait had the idea of Amouage Perfumes Contest with the purposet to involve all perfume lovers and everyone else in an entertaining "web 2.0 storytelling" inspired by fragrances. This is the starting point of Extrait collaboration with Amouage through Finmark, the brand’s Italian distributor.During the latest years, under the artistic direction of Christopher Chong, the omanian perfumes creator associated a videos set to their fragrances, taking inspiration from the tradition of Arabian Nights. A mysterious man appears in the video of Jubilation, the perfume celebrating the 25th anniversary of Amouage. Realising how many people were curious to discover the identity and the role of the mysterious man, Christopher Chong decided to create a sequel of the story in a video for the launch of a new fragrance scheduled for 2010".

Please find all the details on this page.

NB: Extrait is not affiliated with either Amouage or Finmark, its Italian distributor.

Lancome Magie Noire: fragrance review of the perfect Halloween scent

If there is one perfume which conjures up a devilish sorceress in full-wiccan attire it is none other than Lancôme's splendlidly devilish Magie Noire (pronounced ma-zhee nou-ahr and meaning Black Magic) by perfumer-alchemist Gérard Goupy.

Introduced in 1978, Magie Noire is an ardent scent full of insupportable sensuality which projects with the mysterious force of an evil heroine; having you grip your seat with a mix of justified horror and perverse admiration at the same time! Its heady, unsettling base accord acts like velvet or a caressing fur coat that is hiding a knife, its interlay of all the powerhouses base notes (musk, civet, castoreum) a sign of brandishing its bravado like a protective amulet against all odds.
Not to be confused with the 1949 classic Magie (its bottle reprised in the design of Lancôme recents Hypnôse and Hypnôse Senses), Magie Noire was conceived at the wake of Opium's oriental success which took the market by (olfactory) storm and along with exact contemporary Rochas Mystère presented the gutsy, murky mossy alternatives before ultrasweet orientals elbowed them off the central shelves in the 1980s.
The bottle was designed by Pierre Dinand in the same forbidden territories as Opium too: The inspiration being medieval alchemical alembics this time ~instead of Japanese inros~ and covered with cabbalistic signs standing for bismuth, verdigris, sulphur and gold.

Despite its murky depths of oakmoss and patchouli, nevertheless ~which have several perfumephiliacs designate it to the chypre fragrance family~ Magie Noire technically belongs to the woody oriental one.
Starting with an ammoniac opening, which oscillates between the feline and the human, and progressing into a purple fruity overlay over the darkest gothic roses imaginable, Magie Noire is a journey into a noir story that unfolds with each passing minute with a new twist and a new thorn to grab you. The white florals in its heart are not read as such, rather the verdant and sharp greens present themselves at an angle (galbanum and hyacinth amongst them allied to the leathery pungency of castoreum). The drydown of the fragrance is much softer, deliciously mellower and musky-incensy sensual with a microscopic caramel note that is kept on the skin for days.

The fact that several wearers of the original Magie Noire nowadays find it (catastrophically) changed is no illusion: Lancôme actually reworked the formula of Magie Noire when re-releasing it after its brief discontinuation. The 1980s Eau de Parfum and parfum versions were much edgier and headier with a pronounced spiciness and murkiness that could cut through fog like a beacon. The sillage was unforgettable and typhoon-like in its potency with a sex-appeal-oozing-through-pores vibe that could make you or break you: It was a scent that needed to suit your personality in order to work right and on many it didn't. I recall it worn by women with exquisitely coifed hair which seemed like they braved the elements.
Even in its attenuated form today Magie Noire is definitely not a perfume for young girls, not because perfume has an age, but because like a complex grand cru it requires some getting used to and is an acquired taste. Its distinctiveness lends it a special occasion ambience which it exploits to good effect; it would be both a great waste and a sensory overload to use it all the time. On the contrary, savoured drop by drop, it imbues its wearer with the magical charm of an undestructible protective mantle.

Not only Lancôme changed the formula, they also changed the flacons design from time to time, making it a confusing task for chronologising your bottle. I remember the bottle in the 80s was black, following the one depicted in the ads above, while a maroon version also circulated in the 90s. Recently upon its re-introduction Lancôme simplified the bottle into the columnal solid glass with a metallic-looking top depicted below.

Notes for Lancôme Magie Noire: Bergamot, blackcurrant, hyacinth, raspberry, honey, tuberose, narcissus, jasmine, incense, Bulgarian rose, patchouli, vetiver, castoreum, labdanum, musk and civet.

Magie Noire is available on counters and online priced at $55 USD for a 2.5oz/75ml Eau de Toilette and that's the only version Lancôme currently offers. I wish they'd bring back the parfum! There also was the enigmatic huile parfum (perfume oil) version, reputed to emphasize the greener notes, but I have not tried it (yet) to compare with extrait.

Ads via perfume4u.co.uk and pays.dignois.com. Glass flacon via Lancome.ca. Maroon bottle pic via qb.org.nz. Sorceress illustration via mythicmktg.fileburst